CCC Camp Chariton closes but its legacy goes on

The stone shelter at Red Haw State Park.

I wrote yesterday about a game bird conservation effort undertaken during winter of 1939-40 by young men headquartered at CCC Camp Chariton, then entering its final full year of operation. 

The end came during mid-summer, 1941, when the decision to close the Chariton camp and transfer its equipment and personnel elsewhere was announced as follows in The Herald-Patriot of July 29:

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Chariton's CCC Camp No. 2715 will be withdrawn Aug. 15, it was announced today. The Chariton Chamber of Commerce has made efforts the last few weeks to have the camp retained but lack of enrollees due to national defense work as well as a slash in the national appropriation by the Congress has made the decision definite. Lack of further work for a forestry camp has contributed to the decision.

Chariton's camp was started in August of 1934 when it was a tent camp. The initial camp was a soils conservation camp with work being done for farmers consisting of pond construction, contour work and terracing. The present forestry camp moved in on June 1, 1937.

Officials at the camp said today, "We feel just as bad about leaving Chariton as anyone. Most of us have been here for a number of years, have made good friends, and sincerely hate to leave a city in which we have enjoyed living." Camp officers will be transferred to other camps at Keosauqua and Ames. However with the curtailment of CCC activities all over the country, a number will of necessity be dropped.

No decision as to the disposal of the buildings in Chariton has as yet been announced. Youths at the camp here will be transferred along with equipment to the Keosauqua camp.

A compilation of work accomplished here by the forestry camp was released here today. Work being done at the present time on the Lucas area lake will be completed prior to the camp's removal. The lake will impound between six and seven acres and will be stocked with fish by the State Conservation commission. The compilation:

LAND WORKED --- 4,000 acres including 2,000 acres southwest of Lucas, 2,000 acres northeast of Chariton and Red Haw State Park. To a majority of persons perhaps the work at Red Haw state park is the outstanding accomplishment of the camp. Development work was done that would not have been finished for years without the camp.

WORK PROJECTS ON FOREST AREAS --- Fencing, 24 miles; erosion control, 727 check dams; sloping and sodding, 19 acres; erosion planting, 180,000 Black Locust; forest planting, 531 acres, 638,000 trees of Oak, Ash, Walnut, Locust and Pine; timber stand improvement, 1051 acres yielding 900 cords of wood, 8,000 fence posts and 23,000 board feet of lumber; game management, 17 dewponds to conserve water for game, approximately 100 quail shelters on all areas; roads, approximately six miles of roads through forest areas.

RED HAW HILL STATE PARK --- Fenced area; built and resurfaced roads; constructed one rock shelter house; constructed one fishermen's shelter house; constructed two latines; installed two pumps for drinking water; constructed two parking areas; constructed one boat landing dock; planted approximately 80 acres of park with 100,000 trees native to this part of Iowa; constructed 80 picnic tables approximately 40 of which are in the park and forest area; constructed entrance and portals to the park.

PRIVATE LANDS --- 23 planting demonstrations on privately owned lands in this area were established by this camp. Six timber stand improvement demonstrations were established on privately owned lands in this area.

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It should be noted that the work compilation in the article referred only to projects completed after July 1, 1937, when the company housed at Camp Chariton was redesignated and repurposed as Forestry Co. S-104.

Completion of the dam and related infrastructure at Red Haw State Park was completed during the first years of camp operations when the mission of the company housed there was explicitly soils conservation. Forestry camp enrollees continued to develop the state park, adding among other amenities the stone shelter house and the fishermen's shelter house.

CCC men also worked on a variety of Lucas County projects large and small that aren't enumerated. These ranged from building infrastructure for a fish hatchery at Lake Ellis for the Iowa DNR to building the current stone entrance to the Chariton Cemetery.

So the legacy of the CCC program and the young men who served in it remains very evident in Lucas County --- if one pays attention.

I've written a more comprehensive account of Camp Chariton, which you'll find here; history of the Red Haw stone shelter may be found here.